Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501100024
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HINTON, ALBERTA, CANADA LENGTH: Medium
Five wolves had been snared by Saturday afternoon and checked by veterinarians, and helicopters buzzed Alberta's forest in search of more animals for a wolf-restoration program that has been planned for years.
The $7 million U.S. program is an ambitious attempt to return a top predator to a region of the Rockies where wolves were wiped out by the 1930s for the benefit of ranchers.
Supporters and opponents alike say the program signals great changes in how the United States views its Western public lands and the people and animals trying to coexist there.
Environmentalists say the wolves' return reflects a new charity toward a predator once trapped, shot, poisoned and even dynamited to extinction across most of its U.S. range.
``The wolf is the embodiment of wildness, and Yellowstone is the symbol of wild places,'' said Renee Askins, director of the Wolf Fund in Jackson, Wyo. ``It's like returning the heartbeat to the heart.''
But ranchers, fearing that their livestock will become a wolf's dinner, call the restoration program an example of big government and urban environmentalists pulling the economic rug out from under rural Americans.
``The issue is not wolves,'' said Karen Henry, a fifth-generation cattle rancher and president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau, which is part of a lawsuit challenging the restoration project. ``The issue is control of the land. This is part of a bigger agenda from the Interior Department to control the West. If they control the land and if they control the water, then they control the people.''
A team of 15 U.S. and Canadian wolf experts and veterinarians got the go-ahead for the capture program Tuesday, when a federal judge refused to stop it pending the outcome of the ranchers' lawsuit. The lawsuit continues, as does the ranchers' effort to have an appeals court undo the judge's decision.
Saturday, the trapped wolves were given tranquilizer shots and moved to holding pens at Switzer Provincial Park near Hinton, in west-central Alberta. There, they sat sullenly in their pens, curled up in balls. Veterinarians checked their health.
The team hoped to capture 30 wolves, and the first shipment of six or so could head 500 miles south as early as Monday.
Once transplanted, some wolves may wander into livestock areas.
To appease ranchers, the U.S. government declared these animals an ``experimental, nonessential population,'' which means the wolves won't enjoy full protection as an endangered species. Ranchers can try to drive off a wolf that wanders onto their property, and if they can prove the wolf is attacking their livestock, they can shoot it.
by CNB